Flying from city to city, sleeping in hotels, spinning records all night amid bumping parties the life of the star DJ can consume you if you let it. Luckily, veteran DJ Felix da Housecat doesn't cave to temptation.
"When the party's going on I'm not reckless," he says over the phone from a hotel in Cannes, France. "I've been doing this since I was 14 and I've seen people live on the edge, disappear and fall off the dark end, so I've kind of lived and learned."
Felix's new album, Devin Dazzle and The Neon Fever (on Emperor Norton), explores both sides of club life's glittery coin through two opposing characters. "Devin's more of a spiritual, meaningful cat. He's more into the music," explains Felix. "Neon Fever's more into the nightlife fun world, and vanity."
To properly portray this rump-shaking yin and yang, Felix created the Neon Fever, an electro girl-group in the style of Le Tigre, to perform half of the album's tracks, and recorded the Devin Dazzle cuts alone.
"They play off one another. Devin Dazzle's interested in Neon Fever's world, but Neon Fever's so out there she just wants to be human and all that. It's like a battle between spirituality and worldly things."
It's also something drawn from Felix's personal experiences. "I made the mistake once where I DJ'd so much I lost who I was as a producer. People forgot about me for like three years."
But he's wise enough now not to make that mistake again. "I don't indulge at every party. Some parties I play are cool where I can just have a bottle of wine and chill. Some parties be off the chain, they're just insane, it's sick, so you can't help but be vibin' and buzzin' with the people. But I don't play parties like that night in, night out."
"When the party's going on I'm not reckless," he says over the phone from a hotel in Cannes, France. "I've been doing this since I was 14 and I've seen people live on the edge, disappear and fall off the dark end, so I've kind of lived and learned."
Felix's new album, Devin Dazzle and The Neon Fever (on Emperor Norton), explores both sides of club life's glittery coin through two opposing characters. "Devin's more of a spiritual, meaningful cat. He's more into the music," explains Felix. "Neon Fever's more into the nightlife fun world, and vanity."
To properly portray this rump-shaking yin and yang, Felix created the Neon Fever, an electro girl-group in the style of Le Tigre, to perform half of the album's tracks, and recorded the Devin Dazzle cuts alone.
"They play off one another. Devin Dazzle's interested in Neon Fever's world, but Neon Fever's so out there she just wants to be human and all that. It's like a battle between spirituality and worldly things."
It's also something drawn from Felix's personal experiences. "I made the mistake once where I DJ'd so much I lost who I was as a producer. People forgot about me for like three years."
But he's wise enough now not to make that mistake again. "I don't indulge at every party. Some parties I play are cool where I can just have a bottle of wine and chill. Some parties be off the chain, they're just insane, it's sick, so you can't help but be vibin' and buzzin' with the people. But I don't play parties like that night in, night out."
